In ice hockey and similar games, players use bladed hockey sticks to maneuver a hockey puck (or other scoring piece, such as a ball) over the playing surface, such as for passing the puck to teammates, shooting the puck at the opposing team's goal (or net) in an effort to score a goal, and moving (or “carrying”) the puck over the ice surface while retaining possession and control of the puck until it is necessary or desirable to pass it or shoot it.
A hockey player will typically be either a right-handed shooter or a left-handed shooter, and accordingly will use a right-handed stick or a left-handed stick, as appropriate. In either case, the face of the hockey stick blade that the player typically uses to carry the puck, for most passes, and for both “wrist shots” and “slap shots”, is referred to as the forehand face. The other face of the blade is called the backhand face. Especially when moving the puck down the ice, a player will often alternate the puck's position between the forehand and backhand faces—a maneuver commonly referred to as “stick-handling”—to make it more difficult for opposing players to take the puck away.
Traditionally, hockey stick blades were flat, with substantially planar forehand and backhand faces. However, over the past fifty years or more, hockey sticks have also been made with curved blades, with the forehand face of the blade having a concave profile, and with the backhand face having a convex profile. This style of blade is advantageous for a number of reasons. Because of the concavity on the forehand face of the blade, the puck will tend to stay on the blade, rather than tending to roll toward one end of the blade, when a player is carrying the puck up the ice. When shooting the puck on the forehand, the concave forehand profile of the stick tends to center the puck on the blade, thus enhancing the player's ability to aim and shoot the puck with greater accuracy and force.
However, a conventional curved blade also has drawbacks. The convex profile of the backhand face of the blade makes the puck more prone to roll off the end of the blade when a player is stick-handling than would be the case using a straight-bladed stick. For similar reasons, the convex backhand face of the curved blade also makes it more difficult to control and accurately aim backhand shots. Because of such drawbacks, some players still prefer to use straight-bladed hockey sticks in order to have a reasonable if not optimal degree of puck control on both the forehand and the backhand.
The prior art discloses a variety of hockey stick blade designs directed to puck controllability on the forehand and/or the backhand. Examples of such prior art designs include:                U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,412 (Franck et al.);        U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,468 (Lindgren);        U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,932 (Cote);        U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,613 (Hughes);        U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,396 (Cavallaro et al.);        U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,609 (Fell);        U.S. Pat. No. 7,294,072 (Montecchia); and        U.S. Pat. No. Des. 380,243 (Neufeld).        
What is needed is an improved hockey stick blade that provides puck controllability on both the forehand and the backhand, without requiring insert elements, blade bifurcations, or blade face fasciae (being examples of features found in various of the noted prior art designs), while also maintaining blade flexibility for optimal shooting and puck-carrying effectiveness. As well, there is a need for such hockey stick blades that, in addition to being manufactured in finished form, can also be produced by adaptation or retrofitting of conventional hockey stick blades. The present invention is directed to these needs.